The Wrath of Nations:
Sanders, Ivan
and the Vatican warns him against med- novelist, and here Moore has repaid the spiritual lives-now diverging, now run- dling in politics, accusing him of trying tribute. Michel is...
...He devotes an entire chapter norities to speak of...
...Late in his life gloomy predictions of global turmoil as after all, was at once a universalist and an Greene called Moore his favorite living well as to happy tidings about millennial intensely nationalist phenomenon...
...I be- Nationalism of shifting political alignments and the lieved in God, in the church...
...Her nationalist renascence is a worldwide phe- an independent state...
...Who would have thought, for instance, that a 1914 editorial in the Wabash Plain Dealer would be worth quoting in 1993...
...museums featuring iconograthe magic word was on everybody's lips...
...years ago, after the fall of communism, I $3.00 min...
...Actually, the abiding strength of nationalism elicits both subjective comment and learned analysis...
...For the blanc priest, the tations that there is no other life, the novel of its drama: as events develop, they seem words are an epigram of despair and mean- serves as a reminder that there is another more to conform to the contours of recent inglessness...
...It is here that we have witnessed, The result of all this, in Pfaff's view, is and keep witnessing, the spectacular fail- none too encouraging...
...the Atlantic, Story, and other magazines, and cient civilizations...
...But I have Simon & Schuster, $22, 244 pp...
...attributed to the fact that for some years and other publications...
...For Please send and State...
...The author himself labels it, rather too modestly, the "conjectures of a dilettante...
...without its Jews...
...Tonight, gloomy...
...D Payment enclosed...
...Democracy was the most obvious, the 2264-X Hardcover, 240 pp., Address ~: 91/8 x 113/4, simplest, the only answer...
...Even to me as I flew away in passages of firm, cold, novelistic beau- This, of course, is Jeannot's theology...
...But the people of The novel is no simple fictionalized his- worldly transcendence, locates the hand Ganae know no other lands...
...Islamic fundamentism on the part of the country where its ther killed off or ended up on the other talism, then, is a reaction to incomplete and nationality is the majority...
...Because the sailles, for that country, was a true disaster, furious nationalism...
...His stories have appeared in Harper's, in what were often insular and self-suffi- a very old-fashioned American patriot...
...significantly...
...William Pfaff would probably agree with cated America that is no more...
...He deals at length with Asian and more comfortable with themselves and Broadcasting Corporation...
...And while conser- to American nationalism, in which he prevative nationalists would never openly sents a curious reinterpretation of Ameriadmit it, most Hungarians nowadays con- can history...
...state socialism" on tribal cultures because since...
...Johns Abbey 1'.O...
...Pfaff may speak admiringly of a Roman citizen's proud identification with an empire, or nostalgically of the polyglot nature of the Habsburg monarchy, or wistfully of the fast-vanishing regional characteristics of his own native country, but he also knows that the fading of a strong national consciousness can lead to national decline...
...Because its minorities were ei- Western civilization...
...Ultimately, in their struggle against colo- now he has been observing the interna28: 5 November 1993 Commonweal tional scene from Paris...
...eral internationalism of the evolving European community there is the pressing need to compete successfully with Commonweal 5 November 1993: 27 economic rivals...
...symbolism inspire us...
...Naturally, they riot...
...As Michel Jerusalem Bible-Jeannot declares, A generation on, however, the terms of observes, "This wasn't `liberation theol"Rejoice./You are the people./ You have this kind of spiritual dilemma have changed ogy.' This was a faith built around one the power./Use it...
...Aren't they the same thing...
...and The Wrath of Nations is a rigorously intellectual but subjective and impressionistic examination of nationalism...
...His prose, too, is lucid, functional, nonacademic, which makes his occasional lapses into foreign-policy jargon somewhat disconcerting...
...from it, its endless struggles, its cruelties ty, and Moore renounces the most fic- "Was I elected to do these things for and despairs seemed a tale so frightening tionally seductive fact available to him, God's sake, or for the sake of the poor of that, if I told it, no one would believe such remaking the brutal "necklace" killings as Ganae...
...thus, he notes, "European nialism, they beat the West at its own game, unification is an expression or instrument for even the ideologically oriented liberof nationalism as well as a subordination ation movements turned out to have seor sublimation of it...
...no soul...
...The concern side of redrawn borders, along with mil- inadequate secular nationalism-what of that country's government and public lions of its own nationals, of course, Pfaff calls "junk Westernization...
...When we die, there is noth- it is rather a sober recitation of the plagues ing...
...So a place existed...
...The sheer size of these minorities "such was the fashion on the European made assimilation or even real integra- in this connection is especially interest- Left...
...to the swell of books is the notion of internationalism, with both As such, he resembles the protagonists about the end of of them drawing their strength from Enof the writer who depicted Duvalier-era modernity, the end of history...
...but it may not even be and Meaningful Gift...
...erful too fast, and he even theorizes that JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN is Centennial While highlighting certain European perhaps it would have been better if the Professor of Political Science and Professor models, Pfaff sticks to his premise that the Confederacy had been allowed to remain of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University...
...The U.S...
...of a national consciousness in these cul- dain for confident American prescriptions PATRICIA A. O'CONNELL's reviews have tures, for it was realized soon enough that for world order, an attitude that may be appeared in the New York Times Book Review the modern world demanded nations...
...not such a charismatic figure...
...UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND He is a concrete thinker...
...Pfaff doesn't doubting that Jeannot's mission is any- V1 William Pfaff's The let us forget that the ethnic state, ubiquithing but a worldly one...
...The occupant of this recently endowed chair is to to the man of ideas...
...Applicants should that even universalist creeds, or suprana- send a statement of interest, curriculum vitae, selected writings, tional formations that purport to be liber- and the names and addresses of at least three references to al and democratic, are not devoid of David E. Leary nationalist appeal...
...cret nationalist agendas...
...The University hopes that the appointee can begin letarian internationalism fall back on na- to teach at Richmond in late August 1994...
...passed spiritual advisor, So begins Jeannot's ul- or just plain heretical...
...he is now a skep- Wrath of Nations is tous though it may be, is in truth a fiction, tic even as he regards Jeannot as a kind a refreshing antidote an invention of the nineteenth century, as of saint...
...more about their history and the art itself, this book will that...
...In his time, Greene's strait- man...
...And we have continue until the position is filled...
...The French Revolution, Haiti in The Comedians...
...phasis on Eastern Europe and the Balkans but the real enemy was Vietnamese nain his global survey of resurgent nation- tionalism...
...Paul, I have prayed Civilization and the Fury of flection on history, but this reassessment, all my life," his mother tells him...
...He speaks of a civilization in REVIEWERS sider themselves fortunate for not having decline, of the "falsified renewal" of rePAUL ELIE is a frequent Commonweal con- that particular headache to contend with...
...apocalyptic nor particularly comforting...
...Today such an out- over the abandoned buildings of the timate fall and rise, which culminates in look is commonplace...
...ligious outlook which, while wary of next- more fortunate lands...
...As Pfaff sees it, the political "isms" of the modern world: imperialism, fascism, communism have RICHMOND all succumbed to the unquenchable fires of nationalism, mainly because nationalism, he feels, is not an ideology but an outgrowth of "primordial human attachments to family, clan, and community...
...For those who love icons A Beautiful and who would love to know All this suggests a deeply pessimistic view of history...
...a world apart...
...here and now...
...Nominations as well as applications from worthy senior-level What Pfaff attempts to demonstrate is scholars (associate and full professors) are invited...
...Pfaff goes tunity and affirmative action employer and encourages women and further still, and argues that behind the lib- minorities to apply for its positions...
...Box 7500 photographs, 96 in full color, the validity of any "scientific" view of Collegeville, MN 56321-7500 the book relates a wealth of history...
...Several D Bill me...
...It's not without a certain sense of satisThe images of icons have for faction that he notes nationalism's in- centuries opened channels of evitable triumph over "higher ideals," contemplation and prayer to though it doesn't stop him from viewing God...
...when he visits...
...Moore's skillful and in ways that enlarge our apprehension of This matters less than it might have, thoughtful exploration of the two priests' this life, if not the next one...
...He feels free to digress, to be anecdotal, to appeal to unfashionable authority, to cite obscure sources...
...0 though, because in the end the novel remains Father Michel's story not Jeannot's, and the longest shadow cast over it is not Jean-Bertrand Aristide's but A PRIMAL INSTINCT: NATIONALISM Graham Greene's...
...African forms of nationalism, maintain- with the world...
...and the Vatican warns him against med- novelist, and here Moore has repaid the spiritual lives-now diverging, now rundling in politics, accusing him of trying tribute...
...His ken extends far beyond pened, "North Americans today might be 1993 Massey Lectures for the Canadian Europe...
...Meanwhile there Bicentennial Exposition Ground, that syma subtle final gambit that one suspects has emerged, in liberation theology, a re- bol of Ganae's efforts to imitate other, Aristide himself would envy...
...Featuring before him, Pfaff simply rejects the no- THE LITURGICAL PRESS pages of illustrations and tion of historical progress and questions St...
...The dependence brought with them authoriTreaty of Versailles in 1919 sanctioned tarian rule of one type or another...
...what else can tame the fury of national- Includes a selected (2264-X) THE ICON $89.95 ism, or enable people to give voice to le- bibliography, a chronological gitimate national aspirations...
...Exposure to Western Which is all the more surprising since at his book reviews in the New York Times Book Review and Commonweal...
...It is unUNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND reasonable, considered as a general phe- FOUNDED 1830 nomenon, while natural as a specific one...
...It, too, is an end-of-the-century reedge into unbelief...
...He sees a IVAN SANDERS, a professor of English at this assessment, though he does ask rather society that became, though only after the Suffolk Community College, also teaches East pointedly: "What is historical Hungary Civil War, too centralized and too powEuropean fiction and film at the New School for Social Research...
...Not that this is an entirely new development...
...In addition, the are seeing in Serbia, as well as in some of chairholder will be expected to take the lead in initiating symposia, the successor states of the former Soviet visiting lecture series, and other similar activities relevant to the Union, is the worst of both worlds- advancement of ethical inquiry...
...good reason, to take sides in the ongoing We prefer someone with a background in religious studies and an conflict, Pfaff does point out that what we interest in American religious thought and history...
...for the noir one, they are a life of sorts-that of art, in which despair history than to unfold according to the divine imperative to do God's work in the and deep faith can complement each other novel's own imperatives...
...What we are City $89.95 finding out, of course, is that it's also the L5tate/Zipt4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 11aaJ most difficult answer...
...The big difference minority is where it is," Pfaff points out, resulting in the loss of close to two-thirds here, though, is that Islam has remained "it causes the government under which its of its former territory...
...But Hungary's an essentially religious culture...
...He is a limited thinker too, but he acts from the roots of being, of human society, The University of Richmond announces the establishment of the from a given earth and clan....That E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished University Professorship in Reliis why he causes so much confusion gion and Ethics...
...Cooper lives in political ideas hastened the development times he evinces a decidedly European disMainz, Germany...
...tive or absurd manifestations...
...I believed William Pfaff abiding "fury of nationalism," is neither I had a soul that was immortal...
...Despite its members live (and the majority popula- later alliance with Nazi Germany, which great thinkers and scientists, it was untion as well) to believe that it is natural- enabled it to regain some of the lost ter- touched by the rationalism and theologily subversive of the majority order, and ritories, ultimately led to an even greater cal skepticism that has shaped modern represents an actual or potential irreden- disaster...
...In a se- spair, between the habits of transcendence and he might seem a madman were their ries of rousing speeches-set in blank and the ache in his bones which says this circumstances not so grave, and were he verse, like the poetic passages in the broken world is all there is...
...Yet one kind of progress needs Phone: 1-800-858-5450 information on iconography to be stressed more-the irreplaceable and iconographers, and on Fax: 1-800-445-5899 their relationship to Church progress toward genuine democracy...
...alism...
...Name phy, and a glossary of terms...
...Liberation and inure of the noble Wilsonian dream...
...control without the veneer of Marxism...
...But perhaps it's unreasonable to expect unwavering consistency in a book such as this...
...They live in tory: Ganae and its people are described of God in the shape of political history...
...In the birth of independent nation states on "Good evening and welcome to the evening postcolonial Africa the picture is especially the ruins of defeated empires, but in re- round-up of worldwide bad news...
...Special resources will be available "Totalitarian nationalism...
...their presence remained ing and instructive...
...UR is an equal opportionalist biases and cliches...
...of Greeneland: a colonialist of sorts in a pect of the novel...
...reference chart, a list of If prepaying, please enclose 10% for postage and handling...
...cent years, of a richly variegated, complitributor...
...Their beauty and their with dismay nationalism's more primi- 96 PAGES IN FULL COLOR...
...I am nothing./But I am The people come to think of him as their distant outpost, a moderate among fanat- God's servant./God has given me this redeemer, and even as their Redeemer, cry- ics, a man caught between faith and de- sword," Jeannot tells the people of Ganae, ing "C'e Mesiah...
...for the minorities outside its frontiers is Hungary today is perhaps the only ethni- Yet Pfaff is no more sanguine about detaken as proof of this...
...be a person of notable achievement in both teaching and scholarThis suggests that the world event very ship...
...More 26: 5 November 1993 Commonweal often, the two have been rivals, although internationalist ideologies are no match for the fury of nationalism...
...Such a place does exist, a series of murders committed with ma- Michel and Jeannot alike affirm that there and in No Other Life Moore has made it chetes...
...ruthless state for these purposes...
...He also discusses the Islamic retion impossible...
...Nationalist fervor persists because these primordial attachments persist: Nationalism has about it the sweat of passion and hatred, caused by its THE E. CLAIBORNE ROBINS belief in the radiant and recuperable DISTINGUISHED UNIVERSITY past, producing the private readiness PROFESSORSHIP IN RELIGION AND ETHICS to kill neighbor and friend....The nationalist has his heart in his work...
...Though reluctant, with philosophy, religion, and science) who have an interest in ethics...
...But therein lies its value, and its charm...
...If that had hapforthcoming book is Democracy on Trial, the nomenon...
...Like many conservative historians prove a real treasure...
...to the lightenment ideals...
...F1 Commonweal 5 November 1993: 2...
...The case of Hungary within its borders it has no national mi- ern societies...
...There is no other life...
...As her last Ivan Sanders and virtues of the inescapable force known wish, she urges him to stop living the lie as nationalism...
...And despite its characters' protesthe Haitian situation rob the plot of much conclusions...
...Applications will be held in seen often enough the champions of pro- strict confidence...
...The Treaty of Ver- newal, seeing it as yet another form of quite a constant source of friction...
...In other words, it cally "pure" country in Eastern Europe...
...of his priesthood, and he returns to Ganae It is not an age-old force...
...thought Pfaff is justified in placing special em- it was battling communism in Vietnam...
...Working among Ganae's desperately poor, Michel has become a practical agnostic, and when he returns to Canada to be present at his dying mother's bedside, he is nudged over the THE WRATH OF NATIONS peace...
...A coup is planned, and Jeannot flees to ened and elusive religious outlook was sub- For his part, describing a flight out of the countryside, with Michel along as versive enough to be derided as Jansenist Ganae, Michel recalls, "My plane...
...The author who elseRAND RICHARDS COOPER is the author of ing, however, that there, too, nationalism where in his book appears to be a cautious a book of stories, The Last to Go (Harcourt was a Western import, an alien intrusion internationalist sounds in this chapter like Brace...
...velopments in the most advanced Westis a no-win situation...
...Even so, the strong similarities to is no other life, but draw vastly different palpable...
...Dean of Arts and Sciences The ethnic and racial particularism of University of Richmond rightist ideologies is fairly self-evident, al- Richmond, VA 23173 though Pfaff stresses the international character of both German National Soc- Review of applications will begin December 1, 1993, and will ialism and Italian fascism...
...Pfaff surveys the damage done ality it created countries with large, restive things are in a pretty pickle in Paris, a really by Westernized African elites who had imethnic minorities, and the region has been fine mess in Moscow, a knotty tangle in Tel posed the "naive and unworkable ideas of a hotbed of competing nationalisms ever Aviv, and utter chaos in Katmandu...
...Our primary goal is to locate a teacher/scholar with outmuch on the author's mind, the event that standing achievements in the field of ethics, broadly conceived, may well have prompted his meditations, who is willing and able to work effectively with other members of was the savagery that followed the breakup the University's faculty (e.g., in business, law, leadership studies, of Yugoslavia...
...William Pfaff is a journalist, an intellectual, not a professional historian...
...Michel is a character straight out ning in parallel-is the most satisfying asto found a schismatic "People's Church...
Vol. 120 • November 1993 • No. 19
